sOUND CARD?

[Tr1gg22]

How much better for your system than on board sound? I have about 250 watts to spare. I do not have probs with the game at all just wondering what kind of a difference it would make TY..

[TequilaChaser]

it will free up some resources and load on your PC.....

not knowing your computer specs and stuff ( like maybe a dxdiag report of your PC )

it is hard to say how much improvement you might experience...... also their will be a big difference in the different dedicated sound cards you choose to use......

some have like 64 MB's of onboard memory on the sound card and some soundcards have their own processor ( like your computers cpu or a dedicated videocard has its on gpu  processor )

while some cheaper boards still rely on the cpu and system memory instead of having it all on the sound card......

so yes a sound card will help..... but how much depends on what your current system specs are, and which dedicated sound card you decide to obtain for yourself

hope this is helpful....... good luck

TC

[zack1234]

My soundcard recently went plop

So I used my graphics card HD 6970's on board sound via HDMI, I also use my G35 headphones which I believe have a inbuilt soundcard.

AH allows you in sound settings to fiddle  via both which us very good.

soundcards are not expensive and I presume better than on board sound

[Chalenge]

It seems to make a difference in two ways. First, the 3D position of vehicles and airplanes is better defined by the best gaming cards. The best cards would be defined as the Sound Blaster Fatality Titanium Champion and Professional cards. There are other cards that can do 3D positioning but they are not as accurate and/or do the 3D processing on the CPU. Second, the XRAM of the card comes in handy at some times. If you are one to use the custom sound packs you definitely want one of the Fatality cards. Dont listen to anyone that says that you need 98kHz or 32 bit... actually Im not sure what the latest DirectX requirements are but... with the XP based versions 22kHz and 8 bit mono was all DirectSound could handle (actually it natively works best with 8-bit or 16-bit but certainly mono - it can handle more modes but this works best which is probably why thats what AH uses) so adding Stereo sounds at anything higher (sampling-wise) or especially greater bit-depth was a total waste and required processing for the conversion. Conversion requires CPU usage unless you have a card that does its own processing (Fatality). Conversion with USB headsets cause noise and other problems (hello disco!).

Actually... until a realistic and professional release of custom sounds are available I would avoid them all (they are all inconsistent and include stereo sounds in some cases).

[715]

I've got a dumb question.  Back when Vista was introduced I thought that the onboard processing on audio cards was disabled or bypassed, for DRM reasons, and everything done in Windows in software.  The sound card then becomes just a dumb A to D and D to A.  I presumed that Win 7 was the same.  Is this not true?

[Chalenge]

Not true. On card hardware acceleration through DirectSound3D and thus direct access to DirectSound3D is unavailable but onboard processing is still active and calls to DirectSound3D are intercepted now through CreativeALchemy. Realtek has something similar called 3D SoundBack and CMedia uses Xear3D EX.

Windows 8 is supposed to bring another solution in and restore hardware accelerated audio but no word on whether DirectSound will support it or not.

[zack1234]

So Creative cards are a good card to get because they process sounds, the other type use the CPU to do the work?

My on board sound device has started making a buzzing sound so I disabled it and do as I have said previously.

I have been looking at a separate sound card and was unaware that some cards process themselves and others use the CPU to process

I presume my HDMI graphics card sound is using the CPU to process sound?

[Chalenge]

Not that all sound processing is on the CPU. Most of the other cards available process 3D positioning on the CPU. As far as I know all USB headsets use the CPU even more since it is almost certainly a software only solution. I believe they use something called a TSR process that unloads only when the headset is unplugged.

I did a lot of testing with AH and how different audio files affect game play. A while back I visited a few airshows around the U.S. and I made several recordings first hand. So I was able to compile sounds in mono stereo and 5.1 and test them in AH. I was also able to record a few missions in AH on the ground and with several large missions of single type aircraft (B-17 and Lancs for instance). Using mono sounds there was absolutely no performance hit at all. Granted I have a state of the art system and the best Sound Blaster. Then I tested stereo sounds. I tested engine sounds of various lengths but regardless what I used for a file size there were obvious issues. 5.1 sounds worked but created major issues with approaching aircraft that got worse the higher the merge velocities climbed. Just ridiculous.

Then I tried stereo sounds in tanks. I was lucky to have been present during a large tank meet in Bovington (Southern England) and I had recorded startups and engines and even the tracks of more tanks than AH even uses. In AH driving a tank is wonderful with stereo sounds but when you go to look for tanks in the woods as you are quiet and trying to figure out where they are the stereo sounds mess with positioning. This isnt the fault of AH but I believe a limitation of DirectX. With mono sounds and a Sound Blaster card you will be able to know exactly which direction enemy tanks are (unless of course the two-weeker that just spawned in doesnt shut his engine off). So in the very least you owe it to yourself to never use stereo vehicle sounds.

So my conclusion is that using stereo sounds is a waste of time in AH. You would be better off just adjusting for proper volume (something none of the sound packs have done) and allowing AH and Windows to do the rest. Better yet just stick to the sounds AH includes. Now... if someone ever produces a sound pack with actual sounds from all the planes and vehicles... make your decision then.

The reason I decided the Fatality cards are the best choice is that they do 3D positioning like no other card. Fatality also doesnt have issue with maximum air cons in the area but what no card can do well is handle the lag associated with vox. The more people there are in any one area the worse the lag in comms is going to be. There isnt a way to fix that yet I dont think (except radio discipline).

Now... about the HDMI sound. So far the few cards I have tested offer very good 7.1 sounds but when it comes to 3D positioning it just doesnt exist for AH. If someone else has had a different experience I would enjoy hearing about it. I think its due to AH targeting a wider audience than simply those with DX10 or DX11 hardware. I would love to know otherwise so I can pull the Fatality out and use the slot for something else.

[zack1234]

So original mono AH sounds would be better on my G35 headphones and directions would be all correct?

With the HDMI using my Samsung TV speakers are very good and the direction of sound and position seem to be more defined.

I could use original AH mono sounds and just replace explosions and guns etc with custom sounds.

I looked at a fatality card and they were £150 which is not cheap.

Thanks for the explanations it is very imformative

[Bizman]

AH uses mono sounds which are placed to a certain dot according the source. Just as in real life: You hear a knocking on the door, one door, one knuckle i.e. mono. You have two ears that receive the knocking sound and your brain processes that information so that you can tell the direction and distance of the sound.

Think about a tank in front of the tower. You see it, and the sound seems to come from in front of you. Turn your virtual head and the sound moves accordingly from both ears to the one that is closer to the tank. The tank itself isn't moving.

Stereo or multichannel is a way to place monaural sounds in a sound field by amplifying a certain sound in one loudspeaker and dampening it in others. The volume difference in various speakers gives the impression where the sound source lies.

[Chalenge]

So original mono AH sounds would be better on my G35 headphones and directions would be all correct?

Correct. The game uses mono sound and creates the 3D effect itself. Even if you replace only gun sounds and explosions I would avoid stereo and especially 5.1 recordings.

[Infidelz]

just another perspective, I use my onboard sound for comms and the sound card for the environment. AH allows you to differentiate them, which is a pretty cool thing when you think about it.

infidelz.